The photo in this post is from a gas station at a local grocery store. They put up a sign at the gas station showing how much money they saved a community via their fuel points program.

How cool would that be to use one of those library value calculators, add everything up for a year, and share how much money the library has saved the community – in books, videos, and events attended?

For some libraries, this could be a really BIG number!

Why do this? I can think of a few reasons, including:

It puts a positive spin on library budget discussions

It’s a nice way to share what the library does

It changes the conversation from an internal library one (i.e., how many books were checked out) to a community-facing, “why should I care” one

It’s a handy way to share the value of a library without having to explain why all those circulation statistics and customer count numbers matter

Has anyone done something like this before? If so, did it work? I’d love to know – please share!

We like to make my library’s annual reports fun – or at least, something our customers just might watch/read. This year’s report is in a video format (embedded above), with supporting info as part of a blog post in our Press Room blog.